Judge royal

Not to be confused with the chief justice.
Judge Royal of the
Kingdom of Hungary
AppointerKing of Hungary
Diet of Hungary
PrecursorSome functions of Palatine
Formationc. 1127
First holderGeorge
Final holderAurél Dessewffy
Abolished1918 (1884)
SuccessionPresident of the Curia Regia
Part of a series on
Great Officers of State
in the
Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary

The judge royal,[1][2] also justiciar,[3] chief justice[4] or Lord Chief Justice[5] (German: Oberster Landesrichter,[6] Hungarian: országbíró,[6][7] Slovak: krajinský sudca or dvorský sudca, Latin: curialis comes or iudex curiae regiae),[6][7] was the second-highest judge, preceded only by the palatine, in the Kingdom of Hungary between around 1127 and 1884. After 1884, the judge royal was only a symbolic function, but it was only in 1918 — with the end of Habsburgs in the Kingdom of Hungary (the kingdom continued formally until 1946) — that the function ceased officially.

There remain significant problems in the translation of the title of this officer. In Latin, the title translates as 'Judge of the Royal Court', which lacks specificity. In Hungarian, he is 'Judge of the Country', with 'country' in this sense meaning 'political community', being thus broadly analogous to the German 'Land'. English has no obvious translation for Landesrichter, which is the direct German translation of országbíró.

  1. ^ Engel 2001, p. 92.
  2. ^ Stephen Werbőczy: The Customary Law of the Renowned Kingdom of Hungary in Three Parts (1517), p. 450.
  3. ^ Rady 2000, p. 49.
  4. ^ Segeš 2002, p. 202.
  5. ^ Fallenbüchl 1988, p. 145.
  6. ^ a b c Fallenbüchl 1988, p. 72.
  7. ^ a b Zsoldos 2011, p. 26.